“Plastic bags are still available from many retailers who do not have to make the statutory charge of 5p per bag. If people invest just £1 in a bag for life they can reduce the numbers of plastic bags and show their support for the town and its traders and their care for the environment at the same time.”

Shoppers are urged to use a reusable bag to carry their shopping home, or re-use ‘single use’ plastic bags that they already have. The council wants shoppers to consider refusing a bag if it is not really required.

Shopkeepers, interested in stocking the Boston Bag for Life can contact the council on 01205 314308. The bags can be supplied on a sale or return basis.

l Plastic bags are still a major global pollutant and do not biodegrade.

They are hardly ever recycled as plastic bags – energy is used to turn them into other things, which are then generally unrecyclable.

Burning plastic releases noxious fumes. Except for the small percentage that has been incinerated, every single molecule of plastic that has ever been manufactured is still somewhere in the environment, and some 100 million tons of it are floating in the oceans.